Historic Warm Streak Extended to 19 Months

Even seemingly cool weather couldn't stand in the way of our sensational warm streak, now 19 months-long in many locations, including the Twin Cities.

Unlike the dominant and excessive warmth of February, or the strong finish of January, March 2017 merely eked out an above-normal final monthly reading, without too much in the way of temperature news. Monday the 6th was the warmest day statewide, with many locations recording temperatures in the 70s. The middle of the month then turned much cooler, with temperatures commonly 10-20 degrees below average, before a subtle return to mild weather as March ended. With the exception of Rochester, every airport with long-term records finished warmer than 1981-2010 normals, though generally by 2 degrees F or less. In the Twin Cities, daily temperatures were above average on 19 of 31 days, and the average monthly temperature has now been above the 1981-2010 normal for 19 months in a row.

The Twin Cities have not recorded average monthly temperatures that were below 1981-2010 normals since August 2015. This is the longest above-average monthly temperature streak of any kind on record in the Twin Cities, though it is worth noting that the "normals" refresh every 10 years, and procedures for calculating them have changed over time. As of this writing, only five months out of the last 34 (back to June 2014) have been below normal in the Twin Cities. The second longest streak on record was 16 months, from June 2011 through September 2012.

This climatological decade (beginning January 2011), over 70% of months have been above the 1981-2010 normals. In the previous climatological decade, 68% of months were above the 1971-2000 normals, and the Twin Cities has not had a string of 10 or more cool months since 1964-65. Indeed, the whole of Minnesota has been warming rapidly since about 1970, making above-normal temperatures more likely than below-normal ones, even as the baseline values are updated to reflect the warmer conditions.